Overwhelmed

No more

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

These recent past months have been quite something else. I’ve been posting very little here other than anthems. Singing is a sustaining rhythm in my life. But I also observe how the other principal authors that I follow and support on Substack are writing less and less. Some have resorted to posting interview videos to keep it going, but how to skim a video for relevance, let alone read and comprehend it in non-linear fashion? And so I wonder what’s going on.

It’s December, and time for the season of what one person I know calls “winter madness”. That partly explains it, I guess. For many years now my income-producing work has ballooned out of control in December for no obvious reason, this year being no exception, so in searching for understanding I have to leave December out. But something big seems to be taking shape. Perhaps this lack of writing activity that I am seeing is the calm before the storm?

I began to notice long ago that things don’t “just happen”. When a change seems to just happen, it means that what brought it about occurred out of sight. Many things are taking place out of sight, or in some cases hidden in plain sight. We are in a unique time.

We have means of communication at our disposal that could scarcely be imagined a century ago. One might expect that we would be better informed than ever before. It turns out, however, that our advanced means of communication also serve as advanced tools for censorship and dissemination of propaganda. What’s going on here?

Deception. Delusion. It’s overwhelming. Truth is crying out to be seen and heard, but instead we see things “just happening”, and shut out that which would lead us out of this dark place in which we find ourselves. We look to the same place we have always looked for relief — to ourselves. And as always, that doesn’t work. It seems to for a while, but if we were to honestly assess the results over the centuries, we’re going the wrong way, heading ultimately toward self-annihilation. What’s going on here?

We don’t want to be led. We want to lead. If we just try long and hard enough, we will solve all our problems, all by ourselves. That’s important because there’s nobody around that is smarter than us, we think. We alone can do it. Well if we’re so smart, why can’t we see that what we’re doing doesn’t work and can’t work? Why can’t we see that we are not alone?

Here’s how dumb we are. We live in this marvelously engineered world, our own bodies exhibiting unimaginably advanced technology about which we hardly understand anything apart from how to break it or make it blow up, and we think that we “just happened”. That’s about as dumb as it gets.

Our Science™, that we trust no matter how much it lies to us, tells us that we are something that came from nothing, and yet that this something took shape according to preexisting laws. That is self-contradictory.

I use the word “we” loosely. Some see more than others. Some don’t see beyond their own noses. We’re all over the place. But while there’s a whole lot of deception and delusion, it’s not universal.

Cause and effect. When we refuse to see and acknowledge truth, as in these examples, there are consequences. For those who do see, and act with great intention in accordance with what they see, there are different consequences. In the short run, we’re all in this mess together. In the long run, there is a way that leads to death and a way that leads to life. Different consequences.

In this month of December, truth finds a special opening. I don’t know why this came to happen in December — it seems out of place to me in terms of historical events — but nevertheless it is happening right now as I write, perhaps relating to the symbolism of the growing darkness of the approaching winter solstice.

The truth is embalmed in something we call Christmas, but it still can be seen through the wrappings, despite the mindlessness of gift shopping and giving and all else that goes on in this season. Distractions. Diversions. Don’t look. Don’t see. But at least we can still sing about it, or hear music about it, for now.

We did not self-appear out of nothing. That’s silly. That emperor has no clothes. We did not self-engineer over unimaginable stretches of time. Any amount of time you want to pick isn’t enough for that to happen. What we know about life is too complex for it to come about that way, and we only know a fraction. Higher order does not arise out of lower order through random, decaying processes. That’s a no-brainer.

We were created. This world was created. The creation serves as witness of its creator. We were told why we were put here, and what was and is expected of us. We said no, we’d rather look for a better way, our way. And here we are, on the brink. Claiming that we just need to try harder. To force those evil people over there to stop, thinking we will use the law against lawless people who are quite above the law.

Here are several excerpts from what my choir and my congregation sang together this morning. These words can still be heard in this season. Light still prevails over darkness.

From O Little Town of Bethlehem

3 How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is giv'n!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heav'n.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him, still
The dear Christ enters in.

4 O holy Child of Bethlehem!
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today!
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord, Immanuel!

(3) We don’t have to invent our own path through life. What we seek is offered to us as a gift. Not everyone is willing to receive it. (4) Some are.

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From Angels, from the Realms of Glory

1 Angels, from the realms of glory,
wing your flight o’er all the earth;
you, who sang creation’s story,
now proclaim Messiah’s birth…

2 Shepherds, in the fields abiding,
watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
yonder shines the infant light…

3 Sages, leave your contemplations;
brighter visions beam afar;
seek the great desire of nations;
you have seen his natal star…

4 All creation, join in praising
God the Father, Spirit, Son,
evermore your voices raising
to the eternal Three in One…

(1) Creation was a huge event, with a huge conclusion. (2) We are not alone. (3) What we desire can be found, by those who seek it. (4) We are invited.

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From The First Noel

4 Then let us all with one accord
sing praises to our heavenly Lord
who hath made heaven and earth of naught,
and with His blood humankind hath bought.

We are created, yes from nothing that we see or know directly, but coming from somewhere and someone, and at great cost.

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From Joy to the World

3. No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found…

The story of our origin and purpose is complex, but it can be understood, and the source of our lives is approachable. Life in this world is difficult, and it is meant to be. We are under a curse. This is a temporary state of affairs. There is a way out, although not by our own efforts.

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For the curious, a recording of the full service can be found here. We do the best we can with the recorded sound. From my spot on the top row, the morning was almost overwhelming. I’ll be posting excerpts containing our two anthems — where the choir can be heard clearly and which came through reasonably well on the recording — in the Anthems section, with comments as usual.

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The truth of our existence is available freely to those willing to seek, pursue, and continue in it. For those who reject it and persist in their own way, delusion follows. There is much to know, more than a lifetime’s worth of learning, and much to do with engagement and persistence, but the way in, which is also the way out, is simple for those willing to enter. Here is one brief way of presenting it.

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